Mezzo Cammin and When I Have Fears Essay

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September 9, 2012 The two poems When I Have Fears by John Keats and Mezzo Cammin by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow have many differences and similarities in there poetic techniques and situations. Keats and Longfellow’s poems have an abundance of diversity which makes each one unique. However, both reveal that the subject is about sadness and death. In Longfellow’s piece, he writes that there wasn’t much to blame that kept him from what he would’ve wanted to accomplish in his early life. It feels as if this middle-aged poet did have a sorrow for something important that he might have lost. He seems like someone who cares deeply for certain things, and loved ones. His sadness makes the reader feel the same but in a different situation. He uses a poetic technique in the ninth line by comparing his life to a hill in which he is only half way up. Then, he goes on the say how his past was a city with lights, sounds, and sights. Longfellow is obviously heavyhearted, and he is somber that his early life is in the past. In Keats piece, he displays his sadness by believing that he won’t come to his full creative potential before he dies. He used a metaphor for a use of poetic technique in the fourth line by writing how he would like all of his already finished poetry to be fully ripened grain in a big grain storehouse. This tells readers that he believes that poetry must come from within you, deep down. Keats tries to overcome the bleakness of the subject of death by writing that he will try and find love. When you find love, you start to venture beyond yourself. One, who truly has faith in something, can surely accomplish it. Perhaps both Keats and Longfellow didn’t have enough faith in what they were trying to do before they died. They sure were sad and sorrowful middle-aged poets. Keats and Longfellow are fearful of death. In Longfellow’s poem, he is
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